Author Archives: John

I’ve been busy

I know my updates have been quite infrequent over the last six months or so, but I have valid excuses! The most time-consuming venture for me in the last month has been the development of Shanghai Beer Week‘s website. Mike, … Continue reading

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CIA’s Map of Shanghai — in 1982

Recently I was looking for some map files of Shanghai for a cartography project when I came across some now-public early 1980′s CIA maps of Asia. The most interesting map I found was a very large 1:30,000 street map of the … Continue reading

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My Articles in Hops Magazine

  In 2011 I had the opportunity to write two articles for the fall issue of Hops Magazine, an English-language quarterly serving mainly the residents of Shanghai and Beijing. Hops describes itself as “the only magazine in China dedicated exclusively to beer … Continue reading

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Knock-off Culture Claims In-N-Out

As everybody knows, China is full of knock-offs. Intellectual Property is a mere suggestion to the way business is done here. Nothing is sacred. The culture of shanzhai (山寨) produces knock-offs resulting in the horrifying (fake beef), the poisonous (clenbuterol pork) … Continue reading

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Ken Jennings’ “Maphead”

It’s been a little while since I’ve written anything on this blog. However, I feel compelled to write something geography related after finishing Ken Jennings’ new book “Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks.” Yes, it’s that Ken … Continue reading

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Summer’s Over

  The dog days of summer are finally over. I can finally wear a jacket. It’s been a long, long time since I last updated. However, I did get a chance to go to the Philippines, Suzhou and Hanghzou with … Continue reading

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Chinese Carousel of Progress

The Australian broadcasters SBS released a report of the purported Chinese real estate bubble. Throughout several parts of China, ghost towns and malls are cropping up. They aren’t like American ghost towns, but rather a government-backed attempt at rapid development … Continue reading

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